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The 25 Highest-Yielding Dividend Champions

Here's another place to get your dividend on.

Yes, dividend investing is popular. Congress has extended legislation that maintains the low tax rate on corporate payouts through 2012. A great place to look for dividend stalwarts is among those companies that have successfully paid out cash for decades.

Below I highlight the 25 highest-yielding Dividend Champions in rank order by yield. I've also included the number of years that they've paid out a dividend:

Company

Dividend Yield

Number of Years

Investors Real Estate Trust(Nasdaq: IRET)

7.4%

39

CenturyLink(NYSE: CTL)

7.2%

37

AT&T(NYSE: T)

6.2%

27

Altria(NYSE: MO)

6%

42

Pitney Bowes(NYSE: PBI)

6%

28

Washington REIT(NYSE: WRE)

5.8%

39

Old Republic Int'l(NYSE: ORI)

5.8%

29

Vectren(NYSE: VVC)

5.2%

51

HCP(NYSE: HCP)

5.2%

26

Bowl America Class A(NYSE: BWL-A)

5%

39

Consolidated Edison(NYSE: ED)

4.8%

37

Cincinnati Financial(Nasdaq: CINF)

4.8%

50

Black Hills(NYSE: BKH)

4.7%

41

Universal Corp.(NYSE: UVV)

4.6%

40

Leggett & Platt(NYSE: LEG)

4.6%

39

Kimberly Clark(NYSE: KMB)

4.3%

39

United Bankshares(Nasdaq: UBSI)

4.3%

37

Community Trust Bancorp(Nasdaq: CTBI)

4.2%

30

Middlesex Water(Nasdaq: MSEX)

4%

38

Abbott Laboratories(NYSE: ABT)

3.9%

38

WGL Holdings(NYSE: WGL)

3.9%

34

Connecticut Water Service(Nasdaq: CTWS)

3.8%

41

Sysco(NYSE: SYY)

3.8%

41

Piedmont Natural Gas(NYSE: PNY)

3.7%

32

MGE Energy(Nasdaq: MGEE)

3.7%

34

Source: Dripinvesting.org. Based on March 4 stock price.

Given their strong track records, these stocks are a great place to begin your research, but they're not formal recommendations. High yields could be time bombs, and that really attractive high yield could suddenly die. So investigate such companies thoroughly and diversify across sectors, no matter how delicious that dividend looks.